... other than Aguirre: Der Zorn Gottes and Fitzcarraldo, may I heartily recommend Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht.
When the opening credits feature (apropos of nothing) mummified corpses from Mexico, complete with Popul Vuh's usual brooding mellotron choirs, you know you're in for a rare treat. The action is mystifyingly transferred from London to the unbelievably charming Delft, complete with windmills and canals. Meanwhile equally wholesome Czechoslovakia subs for eerie Transylvania, with mumbling gypsy extras playing... uh, themselves. The eccentricity is tending to infinity even before we ever get to Kinski's harrowing impersonation of a naked mole rat. And when the vampyre comes to Delft, Herzog manages to work in (perhaps out of whimsy) a plague of 11,000 rats, scuttling around absurdly on the quaint cobbled streets.
And it's in German (if you rent the right version).
Truly, mere words cannot express the catastrophic mindfuck that is Herzog's Nosferatu. You should see it! It's tops!
Posted by stuart at March 16, 2008 10:27 PM